With the growth of the interact and technology, shared workspaces have expanded to a global level. Collaborative databases are now a part of most work environments, allowing co-workers to exchange data quickly and work together on large-scale projects, irrespective of their geographical location. Numerous software technologies have been developed to help facilitate this collaboration by managing data more efficiently and providing additional functionality.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,958,185 to Rothermel, for example, discloses a collaborative data management system for engineering, construction, and operations (ECO) projects. The system controls how data is stored, shared, and synchronized, and automatically tracks prior edits of documents and files (i.e., “version control”). The system is also capable of incorporating geospatial data, such as computer-aided design (CAD) models, with text data.
Rothermel, and all other extrinsic materials discussed herein, are incorporated by reference in their entirety. Where a definition or use of a term in an incorporated reference is inconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein, the definition of that term provided herein applies and the definition of that term in the reference does not apply.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,769,614 to Eichstaedt also discloses a collaborative database system for the design, construction, and maintenance of fluid processing plants. The system includes version control, automatic notifications, security features, and access controls. The system also provides simultaneous display of changes, allowing two or more users at separate locations to view changes in a document as they are made in real time.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,220,657 to Bly discloses a networked workstation that allows for collaborative project management. Specifically, Bly addresses the need for participants to be able to work simultaneously, making changes to the same document. Bly also allows for tracking of simultaneous changes and collects a history of previous versions of a document in order to track how the document has changed over time. Bly also allows a user to monitor activities of other users.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,088,702 to Plantz discloses a group publishing system that allows an unlimited number of editors and authors to simultaneously perform word processing, document assembly, and editing functions to the same document, without having to store duplicates of documents.
Other patents and patent applications include: U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,438,661, 5,548,506, 6,356,897, 7,797,381, 7,962,512, and US20070112819.
In addition, various commercial products for collaborative data management are available on the market. See, for example, www.viecon.com, www.aspentech.com (“Aspen Basic Engineering”), www.bently.com (“Axsys”), and www.intergraph.com (“SmartPlant Foundation”), and www.cosmos.com (“Innotec Cosmos”).
All of these references fail to provide a collaborative data management system that allows a user to define when and how data is synchronized. While conflict resolution and data synchronization problems have been appreciated, solutions generally rely on “source files” and “destination files.” This structure provides little flexibility and customization with how data is synchronized.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,386,797 to Chatterjee discloses methods and systems for managing business projects. The business projects include parallel/concurrent processes that are performed in isolation of each other, and then merged at a later point in time. The merge (i.e., synchronization) can be manual or by predefined rules. Furthermore, Chatterjee discloses tracking the life cycle of the project by identifying a “status” (e.g., start, begin, end). Data content can be “frozen” (i.e., the data can no longer be modified) once a project phase has ended. GB2399663 to Sandoz also discloses resolving conflicts either by predetermined rules, or by a user's instructions. Both Sandoz and Chatterjee tint to disclose a collaborative data management system that allows users to work independently and allows supervising users to merge/synchronize data in a highly controlled and flexible manner.
Unless the context dictates the contrary, all ranges set forth herein should be interpreted as being inclusive of their endpoints, and open-ended ranges should be interpreted to include commercially practical values. Similarly, all lists of values should be considered as inclusive of intermediate values unless the context indicates the contrary.
Thus, there is still a need for improved collaborative data management systems.